Southern Baked Chicken

Dear Reader, I promised you my recipe for Southern Baked Chicken and here it is. It is quite delicious and lower in possibly slightly healthier than a traditional fried chicken, I said slightly. It is still a treat and as such I don't have it very often, but I do love it when I do. Baked in the oven rather than fried has to count for a lot.
For the British bunch, sorry it is all in cups, obviously it is originally a good old American recipe but it can be irritating when you are used to grams or ounces. Note that it requires some overnight marinating.

Sorry, I seemed to be photographing the chips rather than the chicken for some reason!

Ingredients.

12 pieces of chicken with bones in and skin on

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons hot sauce (i've used all sorts for this, sweet chilli sauce is something I usually have in)

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

¼ cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 sliced onion

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup dry unseasoned breadcrumbs (home made is what I usually use)

¼ cup of olive oil

½ teaspoon paprika

2 crushed cloves garlic

½ cup of grated parmesan

½ teaspoon of black pepper

Initially it looks like a lot of ingredients, but when you read carefully you realise that it is mostly stuff you would have in your cupboard anyway. I have used milk with a dash of lemon juice before instead of buttermilk as I didn't have any, and I think I have also used some yoghurt in the past as well. I rarely have buttermilk in the house by chance I must admit. Because the recipe doesn't require chicken breasts, it is much cheaper chicken wise than it would be.

Preparation:

Whisk together the hot sauce, garlic, buttermilk, mustard, oil, black pepper and half the salt in a big dish.

Stir in the sliced onion, then add the chicken and turn it a few times until it is evenly coated in the mixture.

Cover the dish and leave it overnight in the refrigerator, turning a chicken a few times.

Whisk the flour with the parmesan, thyme, breadcrumbs, cayenne, paprika and the rest of the salt in a baking dish.

Take the chicken pieces out of the buttermilk marinade and roll them in this breadcrumb mixture, turning them over until they are well coated.

Put racks over two rimmed baking sheets and put the chicken on the racks, skin side up.

Leave it to stand for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees c.

Pour the melted butter over the coated chicken and bake for 50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the coating is crispy and golden brown all over.

(Serves 6)

 It is a nice recipe and please let me know if any of you try it and like it.